Isaiah 61:1-11, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.”
I love that! We read about, “The planting of the Lord.” What does this mean? God planted a tree of righteousness of Jesus Christ being virgin-born into the world. The Word of God took on flesh (John 1:1-3, 14). Jesus lived a perfect life as the sinless Lamb of God. Of all the people ever born into human civilization, only one was without sin, and that is Jesus Christ! God said that this seed, Christ, would grow into tree of righteousness (the saints) to bring beauty out of ashes. Christ is the seed which God the Father planted, to bring beauty out of the ashes of the destruction of Israel. As only God can do, He always takes lemons and makes lemonade. Friend, God can take all the bad choices you and I have made, our sins and failures, and the horrible things we have done, and use it all for His glory in ways we never could have imagined. We serve a very good God.
No good works that we could ever do could satisfy the holiness of God which demands justice. Most people think that going to Heaven is a matter of our good outweighing our bad. But what they don't understand is that God won't tolerate ANY bad. God is totally righteous, and His righteousness demands justice, punishment for sin. No matter how good we are, we have no evidence that we are perfect. To the contrary, all of the evidence shows that we are imperfect. We have all come short of God's glory (Romans 3:23).
Isaiah 61:10-11, “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.”
There is no God like unto our God!
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